Obama Awards Medal of Honor to Army Chaplain Killed in North Korean Prison

Father Emil J. Kapaun delivering mass in front of a jeep in this undated photo.

(Photo: White House / Pete Souza)

President Barack Obama embraces Ray Kapaun after presenting him with the Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to his uncle, Chaplain (Captain) Emil J. Kapaun, during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House, April 11, 2013

President Barack Obama awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Father Emil Kapaun, a Roman Catholic Army chaplain who served in the U.S. army during the Korean War and provided physical and spiritual aid to countless soldiers.

"When his commanders ordered an evacuation, he chose to stay, tending the injured," Obama said at the ceremony at the White House on Thursday.

"When the enemy broke through and the combat was hand-to-hand, he carried on comforting the injured and the dying," the president added.

Kapaun was taken as a prisoner of war at the Pyoktong camp in North Korea on November 1950, where he continued to provide food and clothing to fellow Americans and led them in prayer. He also helped smuggle dysentery drugs to the U.S. doctor and continued encouraging the captives even after he developed a blood clot in his leg and began suffering from pneumonia.

The U.S. army chaplain died on May 23, 1951, at 35 years of age after he was left with no food and water by the North Korean prison guards. He has since been declared a "Servant of God" by the Roman Catholic Church, which is the first step toward possible sainthood.

"This is the valor we honor today – an American soldier who didn't fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live," Obama said in his speech on Thursday, which detailed the many other feats and brave actions Kapaun undertook during the Korean War.

"And yet, even then, his faith held firm," the president said the of the chaplain's last days.

"'I'm going to where I've always wanted to go,' he told his brothers. 'And when I get up there, I'll say a prayer for all of you.' And then, as he was taken away, he did something remarkable – he blessed the guards. 'Forgive them,' he said, 'for they know not what they do.' Two days later, in that house of death, Father Kapaun breathed his last breath. His body was taken away, his grave unmarked, his remains unrecovered to this day."

The medal was presented to Ray Kapaun, the chaplain's nephew.

"If not for these men, I may not have had such a lifelong personal relationship with my uncle," Ray Kapaun said, praising the other POWs who survived the prison camp and where present at the ceremony on Thursday. "I thank them dearly and honor them today for having the strength to survive."

The president's full speech remembering Father Emil Kapaun below:

After the Communist invasion of South Korea, [Father Kapaun] was among the first American troops that hit the beaches and pushed their way north through hard mountains and bitter cold. In his understated Midwestern way, he wrote home, saying, "this outdoor life is quite the thing" and "I prefer to live in a house once in a while." But he had hope, saying, "It looks like the war will end soon."

That's when Chinese forces entered the war with a massive surprise attack -- perhaps 20,000 soldiers pouring down on a few thousand Americans. In the chaos, dodging bullets and explosions, Father Kapaun raced between foxholes, out past the front lines and into no-man's land -- dragging the wounded to safety.

When his commanders ordered an evacuation, he chose to stay -- gathering the injured, tending to their wounds. When the enemy broke through and the combat was hand-to-hand, he carried on -- comforting the injured and the dying, offering some measure of peace as they left this Earth.

When enemy forces bore down, it seemed like the end -- that these wounded Americans, more than a dozen of them, would be gunned down. But Father Kapaun spotted a wounded Chinese officer. He pleaded with this Chinese officer and convinced him to call out to his fellow Chinese. The shooting stopped and they negotiated a safe surrender, saving those American lives.

Then, as Father Kapaun was being led away, he saw another American -- wounded, unable to walk, laying in a ditch, defenseless. An enemy soldier was standing over him, rifle aimed at his head, ready to shoot. And Father Kapaun marched over and pushed the enemy soldier aside. And then as the soldier watched, stunned, Father Kapaun carried that wounded American away.

This is the valor we honor today -- an American soldier who didn't fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live. And yet, the incredible story of Father Kapaun does not end there.

He carried that injured American, for miles, as their captors forced them on a death march. When Father Kapaun grew tired, he'd help the wounded soldier hop on one leg. When other prisoners stumbled, he picked them up. When they wanted to quit -- knowing that stragglers would be shot -- he begged them to keep walking.

In the camps that winter, deep in a valley, men could freeze to death in their sleep. Father Kapaun offered them his own clothes. They starved on tiny rations of millet and corn and birdseed. He somehow snuck past the guards, foraged in nearby fields, and returned with rice and potatoes. In desperation, some men hoarded food. He convinced them to share. Their bodies were ravaged by dysentery. He grabbed some rocks, pounded metal into pots and boiled clean water. They lived in filth. He washed their clothes and he cleansed their wounds.

The guards ridiculed his devotion to his Savior and the Almighty. They took his clothes and made him stand in the freezing cold for hours. Yet, he never lost his faith. If anything, it only grew stronger. At night, he slipped into huts to lead prisoners in prayer, saying the Rosary, administering the sacraments, offering three simple words: "God bless you." One of them later said that with his very presence he could just for a moment turn a mud hut into a cathedral.

That spring, he went further -- he held an Easter service. As the sun rose that Easter Sunday, he put on [his] purple stole and led dozens of prisoners to the ruins of an old church in the camp. And he read from a prayer missal that they had kept hidden. He held up a small crucifix that he had made from sticks. And as the guards watched, Father Kapaun and all those prisoners -- men of different faith, perhaps some men of no faith -- sang the Lord's Prayer and "America the Beautiful." They sang so loud that other prisoners across the camp not only heard them, they joined in, too -- filling that valley with song and with prayer.

That faith -- that they might be delivered from evil, that they could make it home -- was perhaps the greatest gift to those men; that even amidst such hardship and despair, there could be hope; amid their misery in the temporal they could see those truths that are eternal; that even in such hell, there could be a touch of the divine. Looking back, one of them said that that is what "kept a lot of us alive."

Yet, for Father Kapaun, the horrific conditions took their toll. Thin, frail, he began to limp, with a blood clot in his leg. And then came dysentery, then pneumonia. That's when the guards saw their chance to finally rid themselves of this priest and the hope he inspired. They came for him. And over the protests and tears of the men who loved him, the guards sent him to a death house -- a hellhole with no food or water -- to be left to die.

And yet, even then, his faith held firm. "I'm going to where I've always wanted to go," he told his brothers. "And when I get up there, I'll say a prayer for all of you." And then, as was taken away, he did something remarkable -- he blessed the guards. "Forgive them," he said, "for they know not what they do." Two days later, in that house of death, Father Kapaun breathed his last breath. His body was taken away, his grave unmarked, his remains unrecovered to this day.